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Her Metabolism is a Minnesota USA Nonprofit, with 501(c)(3) status pending, offering free nonpartisan evidence-based science and education about her metabolism.

 

Eating Disorders

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https://hermetabolism.org/nutrition/eating-disorders/

Updated and Verified: September 08, 2024 (News page records significant changes.)

Accessed on September 08, 2024

Eating Disorders (ED) come in two general forms: (1) choosing to eat too much, or (2) choosing to eat too little. Some popular ways to describe Eating Disorders are these:

  1. binge-eating, where a person eats a lot in a short time;
  2. anorexia nervosa, where a person avoids food; and
  3. bulimia nervosa, where a person eats too much, then punishes themselves for eating too much - commonly by forcing themselves to do one or more of the following: vomit, starve, excessively exercise, use laxatives or diuretics.1

Meanwhile, no self-punishment dependably prevents future disordered eating.1 The metabolic consequences of disordered eating range from mild to severe - and possibly even death.1 While anyone can develop an eating disorder, she is especially at risk.2

Some Choices Predictably Lead to Disordered Eating

Various choices put a person more at risk for disordered eating. Choosing to excessively exercise, for example through sports, especially causes disordered eating for her. Excessive exercise is so common and harmful to her metabolism that researchers created a term to describe a range of metabolic harms especially for her: the Female Athlete Triad.3

The Female Athlete Triad is (1) disordered eating, (2) amenorrhea (destruction of her menstural cycle), and (3) weak, breakable bones from low bone mineral density (with her excessive exercise often leading to early-onset osteopenia and even osteoporosis).3 The Female Athlete Triad is one of countless examples that dispel the misogynistic and metabolically dangerous myth of equality.

Government Help with Eating Disorders

The United States federal government has information about ED and how they may be treated.4

References

References

  1. Eating disorders: About more than food. National Institute of Mental Health. Accessed June 10, 2024. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/eating-disorders
  2. Halbeisen G, Braks K, Huber TJ, Paslakis G. Gender differences in treatment outcomes for eating disorders: A case-matched, retrospective pre–post comparison. Nutrients. 2022,14(11):2240. http://doi.org/doi:10.3390/nu14112240
  3. Nazem TG, Ackerman KE. The female athlete triad. Sports Health. 2012,4(4):302-311. http://doi.org/doi:10.1177/1941738112439685
  4. Eating disorders. Medline Plus. Accessed June 15, 2024. https://medlineplus.gov/eatingdisorders.html

Medical, Legal, and Metabolic Advice

Here in the USA, it is generally illegal and a bad idea for anyone but a jurisdiction-licensed physician to give medical advice, anyone but a jurisdiction-licensed attorney to give legal advice, anyone but a jurisdiction-licensed nutritionist or registered dietician to give metabolic advice, and so forth. This website's information is generally incomplete to predict how applying it may affect a given visitor - because the effects depend on the person's unique circumstances and characteristics.

So, here is the only medical, legal, and metabolic advice on this website: None of this website is individualized medical, legal, or metabolic advice. It is general information. You should not try to apply any of this information to your life, unless you know what you are doing. Generally, the governments of USA's jurisdictions (states and territories) declare two things through law:

  1. Without the guidance of a jurisdiction-licensed physician, attorney, or nutritionist: you do not know what you are doing, so it is unwise and unsafe for you to make too many decision about your medical, legal, and metabolic status and circumstances, and
  2. no one but a licensed physician, attorney, or nutritionist can safely and effectively advise you about those statuses and circumstances - thus, it is generally illegal for anyone else to try.

Obviously, those standards are extremely conservative, if not heavy-handed. However, one should remember that many of those people in government who uphold such strict standards have seen the stuff of nightmares: predictable, preventable, terrible consequences when the least capable and least conscientious people make the worst decisions - whether medically, legally, nutritionally, or otherwise. So, it is not wildly unreasonable to promote - even to legally command - erring on the safe side. Still, various jurisdictions do provide some exceptions to those exceptionally strict standards under law.

Here in Minnesota (and in many other U.S. states and territories) a person can help you with certain aspects of your medical, legal, and metabolic status and circumstances - even when that person is not formally licensed by the jurisdiction. Minnesota, for example, allows various people besides licensed nutritionists and registered dieticians to give metabolic advice and guidance: certain Complementary and Alternative Health Care providers, which Minnesota allows under law. Minn. Stat. § 146A. Thus, one need not feel completely locked into the strict standards listed above (though jurisdictions do typically still hold alternative providers to certain basic standards under law). Instead, in the USA, one can discuss the information on this website, and receive guidance about it, from various experts - whether jurisdiction-licensed or not. Meanwhile, this thorough and smart-sounding notice and explanation should not tempt any visitor into having any extra trust for the information in this website. At most, as the saying goes: "trust but verify."

Sincerely,

Dr. R. Floyd Lindquist

Her Metabolism: Founder, Treasurer, Secretary, Lead Data Scientist, and Director of Communications and Research

PhD (Thanatology), PsyD (Psychology), DLP (Law and Policy), MPH (Nutrition & Epidemiology), MS (Nutrition), MA (Counseling)

floyd[at]hermetabolism[dot]org

Her Metabolism is a Minnesota Nonprofit (with 501c3 status pending)